Original lithographic poster printed by Mourlot, for his 1969 retrospective at the Grand Palais

Produced to announce Marc Chagall’s major retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris (13 December 1969 – 8 March 1970), this poster accompanied one of the most significant institutional recognitions of his career. The exhibition brought together several hundred works and confirmed Chagall’s position within the canon of modern French art.

The image reproduces Le Magicien de Paris, in which a floating, jester-like figure hovers above the Paris skyline, bouquet in hand. Below, a dense cluster of figures gathers along the river and bridges, forming a clear audience beneath the performer. The composition reads as a theatrical encounter: the artist-magician presenting himself before the city, offering art as a public act rather than a private vision. Paris appears not as topography but as stage, memory, and setting for creative display.

Printed as an original lithograph at Atelier Mourlot, the poster preserves the fluid colour and linear grace of Chagall’s painting while translating it into a public graphic form. At once celebratory and self-reflective, the image positions the artist as both conjurer and spectacle — a figure shaped by his audience as much as by imagination — making this poster a fitting visual emblem for a retrospective that looked back while addressing a broad public.